Left to our own
by HiddenYori
Summary: Shikamaru is left to his own devices from a young age. His parents are very busy and seem to rarely have time for him any more. Worse yet, he lost the right to be clan heir to his 'smarter' cousin Shikani. No one is his friend, not since Choji started gluing himself to Shikani's side. That until he notices the Fire Daimyo's daughter sitting in his favorite chair in the library.
1. Chapter 1

In this story Shikamaru isn't the Nara Clan heir, but his cousin who everyone believe is smarter then him.

The first time Nara Shikamaru sees her, sitting in his favorite chair in the library, he spends the entire afternoon studying her like he would a book.

She's a small girl with perfect beige curls twisted into a complex braid and soft copper filled eyes. Everything about her is very delicate, from the way she holds the book in her dainty hands to the pristine white dress she wears. All the Nara knows is that, she's different than anyone he's ever meet before, a very composed and poised child in a silent shell.

She was silent but not shy like the Aburame in his class, instead she just seems to enjoy the silence.

She was confident but not overbearing like Ino, instead she seems to know her own value.

She was caring but not self conscious like Choji, instead she just seems to want those around her to smile.

Interest caught, the boy returned to the library to watch the girl a second day.

"What is your name?" The girl asks, eventually looking over her book towards Shikamaru's hiding spot on the second day. "You've been standing there a very long time."

"I'm Nara Shikamaru," The boy introduces. "You are in my stop."

The girl looks at the chair she sat in curiously, a brief look of annoyance crosses her face but it quickly leaves as she turns back to the boy. "I am Nanaji. This spot doesn't have your name on it but if you would like, we could share it."

Nanaji moves over enough for Shikamaru to sit on the chair with her, before going back to the book she's been reading. Only looking up when she feels the stop next to her sink slightly, and a light almost unheard ghosts her cheek 'Troublesome Girl'.

One of the Anbu guards assigned with the task of watching Nanaji, could only watch silently as black muck from the Nara boy's shoe fell onto the girls pristine white dress.

"Would you like to come over to my house for dinner?" Nanaji asks at the end of the day, books protectively wrapped in her arms and hope edging into her voice. "I've never had anyone over for dinner before."

"Sure."

'Troublesome girl.' A voice in Shikamaru head musses fondly.

XXX

Shikamaru felt a little awkward and self conscious about where he was. He was just waiting for someone to jump out from behind a door and yell that this has all been a practical joke. This couldn't be real, the little quiet girl he'd meet at the library couldn't be the Fire Daimyo's daughter.

"It's okay, my father and brothers won't be joining us for dinner. You only have to worry about passing my Aunt Jiji's inspection." Nanaji jokes lightly, playing nervously with one of the many bracelets on her wrists. "I'm sorry if you are uncomfortable, you can leave if you want to? I understand, people always get nervous when they find out who my father is."

"It's fine, I'd like to stay if that's okay, but are you really the Fire Daimyo's daughter?" Shikamaru asks, taking a hesitant step towards the table in the dining room. The voice in his head trying to reasons why he should actually stay and not just run back home. 'It would be very troublesome to come all this way and not at least get some food.'

"I am." Nanaji blushes softly. "I am Nanaji the seventh royal child to the Fire Daimyo, I am also the youngest child and the only daughter."

"Okay." Shikamaru breath out. "I guess, I just don't understand why you invited me over. I'm not very important, just a boy from a small family, I'm not even my clan's heir."

"I have never had someone our age notice me," The blond explains, sitting at one of the many settings on the table. "But you noticed me. Even if it was because I was sitting in 'your' spot."

Shikamaru gave the girl a small smile, not because she is helping him pick the correct fork to use for the salad (why is there four forks?), but because he understands. No one ever notices him either, he always seems to just be 'A Nara' or 'Shikaku's son', In a way, Shikamaru was happy that Nanaji noticed him, even if she noticed him watching her read in his favorite spot.

"Troublesome girl, So should I call you Nanaji-Hime?"

"Nanaji-Hime is very formal and everyone calls me that, but I would like to think that a friend would call me something else."

"Troublesome princess, How does Nana-kun sound?"

In a second the princess's copper eyes wells with unshed tears, making the Nara fear that he's done something wrong, but she quickly smiles. "That sounds really nice...Ru-chan."

'Troublesome girl.'


	2. Chapter 2

Nanaji smiles softly as she pulls a soft purple flower from the ground, brushing her stubby fingers over the roots that came out of the earth. A grasshopper bounces away from it's perch on another flower close by, and jumps on a sleeping boy's nose. This was the best time of the day- despite being so near the end of the day, that the sun has begun setting- because she could spend time with Shikamaru, without an ever present armed Anbu watching their every move. Nanaji dearly treasures these moments, because she could pretend she was a normal child, spending time with her friend, and she didn't have to worry about the future, nor the responsibilities she would one day hold.

It was nice, having a friend, who let her feel like just another normal person and not the Fire Daimyo daughter. Not to mention, the girl found Shikamaru to be a nice and calming presence to be around. Shikamaru also always see her as a person, which is something she thinks her own father forgets about at time.

An annoyed huff drew Nanaji eyes from her newest flower, a Kikyo also known as a Bluebell, to Shikamaru's squinting forehead where the small grasshopper crouches. Of course, the boy was too lazy open his eyes and swat the bug away. Instead, he just sat with a look of annoyance on his face and waited for the bug to move on it's own.

Greatly amused boy the lazy boy's indifference to the bug Nanaji laughs, and not the dainty polite laugh that her tutor had taught her but a full belly laugh that left her sides hurting for a proper breath.

"Troublesome Princess." Shikamaru mutters softly with no real annoyance in his voice but instead a hint of pride, because he is one of the few to make Nanaji laugh so openly.

Grinning prettily the blonde hit the Nara's forehead with the palm of her hand softly. "You shouldn't call people troublesome, it is very rude."

The boy only shrugs, lifting his head enough to be placed on Nanaji's outstretched legs so she could play with his dark locks. Relaxing into the gentle touch, Shikamaru thought about his newest -and kind of only- friend.

Nanaji was very open with her feelings and wore her heart on her sleeve, not afraid to tell you what she thought but not opposed to hearing your own feelings. The 'Troublesome Princess' was also very intelligent maybe not in the logical/scholarly way many of the Nara clan men valued, but instead she was intelligent in the way of people's emotions and thought.

That is part of the reason Shikamaru decided to keep his friendship with Nanaji a secret from his family. He was worried introducing her to his family would somehow taint their friendship, or worse the ninjalifestyle that his clan practiced would taint Nanaji and jade her. The other reason he decided to keep his friendship with Nanaji a secret was to see if his family cared enough to find out who he spent so much of his time with.

So far no one had questioned where Shikamaru went most day...and that was disheartening.

"Do you ever wonder-" The girl cut off her own sentence as she laid her hands on either side of the ground next to Shikamaru's head. "It's not normal or right to treat him the way they do. All of the other orphans are treated -well not great- but they are treated with some level of basic human respect. Him. They treat him...it's not normal and in your own words ...troublesome. I don't like it."

"Who do you mean?" Though, Shikamaru had a good idea of who they were talking about he had to make sure. As far as he was aware there is no way for Nanaji, an actual princess, to come into contact with Naruto Uzumaki, an actual street urchin.

"You know him...Naruto."

"But, the real question, is how do you know him."

A thoughtful look covers Nanaji's face, "We share Anbu guard rotations, which also doesn't make sense, because why does he a 'no named orphan' need security on pare with the 'Fire Daimyo's' daughter. The **Hokage's** himself doesn't share security as tight as ours."

Shikamaru nods, filing all this information away for the future, "I asked my father about it once, he wouldn't give me a straight answer."

"I haven't been able to get a straight answer either."

"Troublesome."

Nanaji finally understood Shikamaru's use of the word 'troublesome', because not being able to make sense of Naruto's treatment, well it wasn't 'troublesome' because that's too rude for a Princess to say but…"What an annoyance"- at least sounded more polite.

~~Line break

All of Nanaji's politeness was gone and shot five ways to hell, so saying troublesome was very much within her own right, and she doubts she could ever seriously scald Shikamaru for the use it again without twitching.

No one would give her answers.

She'd asked everyone who worked in her home (and those numbers reached into the triple digits-dammit), written more family than she was even aware of having, pleaded with her father for information, and has even gone as far as to ask all six of her brother's personally if they knew anything about 'Uzumaki Naruto'.

While, she has been able to gather that there's is in fact some sort of secret surrounding the orange loving boy, she was no closure to finding out what that secret could be.

Not that Shikamaru was faring better, while overall less tight lipped then the politicians that Nanaji is accustomed to dealing with, Ninjas aren't exactly forthcoming with information of any kind much less information that seemed to be a national secret.

Two weeks and neither of them had anything that pacified their curiosity in the slightest.

"Do you know my manner has a 'utensil inspector', because I sure didn't. I tried to ask him a question and he quite." Nanaji hissed sourly to her friend, pouting in annoyance as she pulled a new book down from one of the shelves surrounding them in the library. "His job was to look a silverware- sure it sound really boring, but why would you quit it because the owners daughter is suddenly asking questions about an no name orphan!"

Shikamaru snorted into the scroll he was reading, "I tried asking this one woman about Naruto, I just happened to see her when I was walking past a Dango stand, and she slapped me with an octopus. I have no idea where she got this octopus from and now I'm stuck taking care of an it, I decided to name it Takoyaki ."

Nanaji shock her head in amusement. "Of course you did."

"Something is wrong."

"I know."

Both friends sat in silence for a minute, trying to see if their was something they had missed that would explain the mystery of Uzumaki Naruto.

"I wish we could-Owe!" Shikamaru rubbed his head, a large red spot already forming from where a book had come flying at his head.

Curious the girl picked up the book that had obviously been thrown at her friend's head with intent. Fleetingly she wondered where her Anbu guards were at but let that thought pass quickly when she saw the title cover of the book she help. "Children of truth, fire of intelligence, and soul of Metal: A hand book. Read at your own risk, but know that opening this book will forever bind you. Read in private *not in front of your Anbu guards (this part was scratched into the leather binding and obviously directed at Nanaji). Enemies of the Bark Beware."

"This is...This is Troublesome." Shikamaru yawned, lazily feeling the bump that knotted in his forehead and blackened. "Do you want to open it."

"I think I do."

"We've got nothing to lose, why don't you open it."


End file.
